Activities at South Chowdene Care Home

Well, let’s face it, this one isn’t hard to do although the quiz in the morning really did test our brains and everyone learnt something they didn’t already know about chocolate. Residents had a good reminisce around the chocolate wrapper designs of yesteryear but the real interest started when the chocolate fountain came round and it was time to have a very healthy tasting session with blueberries, grapes and raspberries to dip in the fountain. MMMmmmm!

The bakers amongst Residents at South Chowdene had a fantastic time on 1st July making a few batches of ginger biscuits (which needed to be tasted as they went along). Weighing, sifting, mixing and melting all brought back warm family memories – as did timing the biscuits in the oven and the big decision on everyone's lips were as to whether they really were ready. Anyone who hadn’t had a chance to be involved in the making, made up for it by tasting the finished products and no one heard any complaints on that score!

1st July is also Joke day so we also had fun rolling out the 1 liners as we baked and tasted.

South Chowdene residents took advantage of both Picnic and Cupcake day at the same time starting with cupcake decoration in the morning where residents chose to top their cupcakes with chocolate or icing and designed the pattern showing some talent in ‘feathering’ and imagination in lovely bright colours.

At lunchtime, bright picnic boxes were ready full of traditional picnic fare to be taken to each resident’s chosen spot where we had some great conversations about where and with who they used to picnic. There were some treasured memories and some very funny stories!    The decorated cupcakes went round on the Tea Trolley in the afternoon and were admired and enjoyed by all.

In the current circumstances, we couldn’t do all we wanted to do to show our volunteers how much we treasure their visits, but residents made cards and wrote their messages in them and we hope that these brightened both Mandy and Jane’s days when they received them! We are hoping that we will soon be able to show our appreciation properly.

We have been able to sort out Skype to see Annie from time to time and Evelyn Wright the Resident Ambassador awarded her the Volunteer Certificate however, we can’t wait to be feeding Annie her beloved carrots again soon.

Staff and residents at South Chowdene Care Home in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear are celebrating their recent Care Quality Commission inspection rating, where they scored an overall ‘Outstanding’ after being reviewed for a safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led service.

Currently only 4.3% of England’s care homes, domiciliary care agencies and hospitals have an overall ‘Outstanding’ rating, and South Chowdene has been ranked among the best in the country for the quality of the services it provides during a routine inspection.     The CQC inspected the home on the 18th November 2019 (the report was released on 1st May 2020) and rated the home, run by Barchester Healthcare, as ‘Outstanding” in two key assessment areas (‘Responsive’, and ‘Well-Led’) and ‘Good’ in three areas (‘Caring’, ‘Effective’ and ‘Safe’).

The report stated that the home was rated outstanding because “The level of care is “Outstanding”, not just good. It's like a true family here.”

Residents at South Chowdene were eagerly anticipating this event, having racked their brains for answers to the many biscuit quizzes we had. These brought out a lot of memories – one type of biscuit for after school, one just for birthday parties and those which were only for high days and holidays and very special occasions.

Residents had the opportunity to taste lots of different and often new biscuits (the amaretto was definitely a case of 'love it or loathe it') during the day, but what also had them hooked was that our new friend also came to join in the festivities and made himself part of the South Chowdene family. We're looking forward to lots more fun time with him!